Gaelic Names of Pibrochs a Concise Dictionary Edited by Roderick D

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Gaelic Names of Pibrochs a Concise Dictionary Edited by Roderick D February 2013 Gaelic names of Pibrochs A Concise Dictionary edited by Roderick D. Cannon Introduction Sources Text Bibliography February 2013 Introduction This is an alphabetical listing of the Gaelic names of pibrochs, taken from original sources. The great majority of sources are manuscript and printed collections of the tunes, in music notation appropriate for the bagpipe, that is, in staff notation or in canntaireachd. In addition, there are a few arranged for piano or fiddle, but only when the tunes correspond to known bagpipe versions. The main purpose of the work is to make available authentic versions of all authentic names, to explain apparent inconsistences and difficulties in translation, and to account for the forms of the names as we find them. The emphasis here is on the names, not the tunes as such. Many tunes have a variety of different names, but here the variants are only listed in the same entry when they are evidently related. Names which are semantically unrelated are placed in separate entries, even when linked by tradition such as Craig Ealachaidh and Cruinnneachdh nan Grandach. But in such cases they are linked by cross-references, and the traditions which explain the connection are mentioned in the discussions. Different names which merely sound similar are also cross-referenced, whether or not they apply to the same tune. Different names for the same tune, with no apparent connection, are not cross-referenced. Different tunes with the same name are given separate entries, though of course these appear consecutively in the list. In each entry the first name, in bold type, is presented in modern Gaelic spelling except that the acute accent is retained, e.g. mór not mòr. The number following the name is that of the current Piobaireachd Society Catalogue, available on www.piobaireachd.co.uk. An asterisk * before the name indicates that the Gaelic name is not in any of the sources, but is reconstructed from the other information given. Original names are taken from the heading above the music, retaining spelling, capitalisation, accents and punctuation. Where the same source gives more than one name, i.e. Gaelic and English, they are separated by a solidus (/). Gaelic names are given before English, but this does not necessarily reflect the order in the original. Linking punctuation, or words such as “or” or “alias”, are usually omitted. In some cases it is evident that the names were entered on different occasions, or by different hands, but this is not usually mentioned here. Names which were evidently added much later are ignored. An ellipsis (…) stands for something which could not be read in the original, or else for words which are legible, but are omitted here, the omission being explained in the discussion section of the entry. A tilde (~) stands for the whole of the remainder of a name, when only a part of it is being referred to: in other words an expression like ‘An ~ K3 index’ means that in the index of K3 the name is the same as the one just quoted, except for the addition of An at the beginning. Square brackets [ ] enclose material which is considered to have omitted accidentally and is restored here. The insertion [sic] marks an apparent error, to confirm that it is present in the original. Sources are identified by the codes listed below. When two codes occur together, like ‘K1 and KK’, this means that the name or names are given identically in both. February 2013 When a music source has an index in addition to the names written above the pieces, this is only cited in cases where the index is believed to have been compiled by the original writer, and where there is some difference. Thus ‘K3 index’ as a source after a name means that the name in question is taken from the index and not from the body of K3. The translation is meant to represent as clearly as possible the meaning of the main entry. Exceptionally, a modern ‘conventional name’ is given, in which case a more literal translation of the main entry is offered as well. In the discussion of each name, the first points dealt with are details of spelling, including evident printing and clerical errors, and where possible, explanations of how these came about. Then come points of grammar and vocabulary. The term ‘vernacular’, sometimes applied in this section, has no derogatory overtones, but rather the reverse as the aim of the discussion is to ascertain as far as possible what the actual usage was among pipers at the time of writing. I make no apology for going into such small details. They are all points which were puzzling to me until I had them explained by experts. My approach is that of a Gaelic learner who wishes to extract all the information that a name provides, and no more. As already stated, the emphasis here is on names, not tunes. People and places are identified where possible, but only briefly and when not obvious. Traditions are not recounted at length but references may be given to published versions, especially when there has been a recent scholarly discussion. Composers’ names and dates are given only in cases where these are specified in the source and where it seems likely that they are firmly based on the writer’s personal knowledge. In practice this means that very few dates are given earlier than 1790. This project has been on the go for many years and I want to thank all the friends who have made it possible. For help with material and information I thank the staffs of the National Library of Scotland; also the College of Piping and the National Piping Centre, Richard Powell who was always generous with access to his superb private collection, and Keith Sanger for advance information from his own studies. My helpers with Gaelic have included Ronnie Black, Iain Fraser, Allan MacDonald, John MacInnes, Nan MacQueen, the late Rev. William Matheson, Colm Ó Baoill and Margaret Stewart. Even so, there will still be plenty of errors, all mine. This version will be replaced with revised versions from time to time, and I will be most grateful to anyone who will point out errors and omissions. I can be reached directly at the addresses below. Roderick D. Cannon January 2009, revised February 2013 345 Unthank Road Norwich NR4 7QG [email protected] February 2013 SOURCES A MacArthur-MacGregor manuscript (1820). NLS MS 1679. For critical edition and facsimile see F. Buisman et al., (2001). Only titles which seem to be in the original handwriting are listed here. AC Campbell, Alexander [1815]. Manuscript diary, entitled A slight sketch of a journey made through parts of the Highlands and Hebrides; undertaken to collect materials for Albyn's Anthology. Edinburgh University Library MS La. 51. C1 Campbell Canntaireachd Manuscript, vol 1 (1797) NLS MS 3714. For a facsimile, see www.piobaireachd.co.uk C2 Campbell Canntaireachd Manuscript, vol 2. NLS MS 3715. Written on paper watermarked 1814 but considered to be derived from a previous version. For a facsimile, see www.piobaireachd.co.uk C3 Campbell Canntaireachd. A copy, included in SC, by Angus MacKay, of four of the tunes which occur in C2. Actually considered to have been copied from an earlier version of C2. See F. Buisman (1987), and R.D. Cannon (200X). D0 MacDonald, Donald [1820]. A collection of the ancient martial music of Caledonia, called piobaireachd... D. MacDonald, Edinburgh. 3rd edition, improved, Alex. Robertson, Edinburgh [1822]. For critical edition see R. D. Cannon and K. Sanger (2006). For a facsimile of the oldest edition, see www.piobaireachd.co.uk D1 MacDonald, Donald (1826). Manuscript. NLS MS 1680. In the body of the MS the tunes seem to have been untitled at first. Titles here are taken from the printed History of the Airs... which is bound into the volume. For critical edition see R. D. Cannon and K. Sanger (2011).For a facsimile, see www.piobaireachd.co.uk February 2013 DJ MacDonald, Donald, junior, son of the above (1826). Manuscript. The MS is lost, but careful copies of the tunes are in the Kilberry Papers, NLS MSS 22098-22117. For facsimiles of these copies, see www.piobaireachd.co.uk DOW Dow, Daniel [c .1783] A collection of ancient Scots music for the violin, harpsichord or German flute ... consisting of ports, salutations, marches or pibrachs, etc. Edinburgh. ER Lady D’Oyly manuscript. Original Highland airs collected at Raasay in 1812 by Elizabeth Jane Ross. Edinburgh University, School of Scottish Studies Library, MS 3. For transcriptions of piobaireachd, see P. R. Cooke (1985-6). F MacFarlane MS, vol 3 [c. 1740]. NLS MS 2085. G MacLeod, Niel, of Gesto (1828). A collection of pibaireachd or pipe tunes, as verbally taught by the McCrummen pipers in the Isle of Skye, to their apprentices. Printed by Lawrie & Co., Edinburgh. For a facsimile, see www.piobaireachd.co.uk Gesto Notes. See Bibliography. H Hannay-MacAuslan Manuscript (c.1811). NLS Acc. 11600, formerly Dep. 201. For a facsimile, see www.piobaireachd.co.uk. For an account, see F. Buisman (1985–6). J MacDonald, Joseph [1760]. A compleat theory of the Scots Highland bagpipe...Edinburgh University MS La. III. 804. For a modern edition and facsimile see R. D. Cannon (1994). February 2013 JK MacKay, John [c. 1840]. Manuscript of piobaireachd. National Library of Scotland, Acc 9231. The manuscript has been greatly defaced and titles which were originally written in pencil have been erased and overwritten in ink. Only those early ones which can still be read are included here with reference JK, but see also next entry.
Recommended publications
  • Bartlett, T. (2020) Time, the Deer, Is in the Wood: Chronotopic Identities, Trajectories of Texts and Community Self-Management
    Bartlett, T. (2020) Time, the deer, is in the wood: chronotopic identities, trajectories of texts and community self-management. Applied Linguistics Review, (doi: 10.1515/applirev-2019-0134). This is the author’s final accepted version. There may be differences between this version and the published version. You are advised to consult the publisher’s version if you wish to cite from it. http://eprints.gla.ac.uk/201608/ Deposited on: 24 October 2019 Enlighten – Research publications by members of the University of Glasgow http://eprints.gla.ac.uk Tom Bartlett Time, the deer, is in the wood: Chronotopic identities, trajectories of texts and community self-management Abstract: This paper opens with a problematisation of the notion of real-time in discourse analysis – dissected, as it is, as if time unfolded in a linear and regular procession at the speed of speech. To illustrate this point, the author combines Hasan’s concept of “relevant context” with Bakhtin’s notion of the chronotope to provide an analysis of Sorley MacLean’s poem Hallaig, with its deep-rootedness in space and its dissolution of time. The remainder of the paper is dedicated to following the poem’s metamorphoses and trajectory as it intertwines with Bartlett’s own life and family history, creating a layered simultaneity of meanings orienting to multiple semio-historic centres. In this way the author (pers. comm.) “sets out to illustrate in theory, text analysis and (self-)history the trajectories taken by texts as they cross through time and space; their interconnectedness
    [Show full text]
  • (2014) Dlùth Is Inneach: Linguistic and Institutional Foundations for Gaelic Corpus Planning
    Bell, S., McConville, M., McLeod, W., and O Maolalaigh, R. (2014) Dlùth is Inneach: Linguistic and Institutional Foundations for Gaelic Corpus Planning. Project Report. Copyright © 2014 The Authors and Bord na Gaidhlig A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge The content must not be changed in any way or reproduced in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holder(s) http://eprints.gla.ac.uk/98132/ Deposited on: 14 October 2014 Enlighten – Research publications by members of the University of Glasgow http://eprints.gla.ac.uk Dlùth is Inneach – Final Project Report Linguistic and Institutional Foundations for Gaelic Corpus Planning Prepared for Bòrd na Gàidhlig (Research Project no. CR12-03) By Soillse Researchers Susan Bell (Research Assistant, University of Glasgow) Dr Mark McConville (Co-investigator, University of Glasgow) Professor Wilson McLeod (Co-investigator, University of Edinburgh) Professor Roibeard Ó Maolalaigh (Principal Investigator, University of Glasgow) Expert Adviser: Professor Robert Dunbar, University of Edinburgh Co-ordinator: Iain Caimbeul, Sabhal Mòr Ostaig UHI 27 January 2014 Redacted version for publication GEÀRR-CHUNNTAS GNÌOMHACH Is e tha san aithisg seo toraidhean bho phròiseact bliadhna a rinn sgioba rannsachaidh Shoillse às leth Bhòrd na Gàidhlig (BnG). B’ e amas an rannsachaidh fuasgladh fhaighinn air a' cheist a leanas: Cò na prionnsapalan planadh corpais as fheàrr a fhreagras air neartachadh agus brosnachadh
    [Show full text]
  • Etymology of the Principal Gaelic National Names
    ^^t^Jf/-^ '^^ OUTLINES GAELIC ETYMOLOGY BY THE LATE ALEXANDER MACBAIN, M.A., LL.D. ENEAS MACKAY, Stirwng f ETYMOLOGY OF THK PRINCIPAL GAELIC NATIONAL NAMES PERSONAL NAMES AND SURNAMES |'( I WHICH IS ADDED A DISQUISITION ON PTOLEMY'S GEOGRAPHY OF SCOTLAND B V THE LATE ALEXANDER MACBAIN, M.A., LL.D. ENEAS MACKAY, STIRLING 1911 PRINTKD AT THE " NORTHERN OHRONIOLB " OFFICE, INYBRNESS PREFACE The following Etymology of the Principal Gaelic ISTational Names, Personal Names, and Surnames was originally, and still is, part of the Gaelic EtymologicaJ Dictionary by the late Dr MacBain. The Disquisition on Ptolemy's Geography of Scotland first appeared in the Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Inverness, and, later, as a pamphlet. The Publisher feels sure that the issue of these Treatises in their present foim will confer a boon on those who cannot have access to them as originally published. They contain a great deal of information on subjects which have for long years interested Gaelic students and the Gaelic public, although they have not always properly understood them. Indeed, hereto- fore they have been much obscured by fanciful fallacies, which Dr MacBain's study and exposition will go a long way to dispel. ETYMOLOGY OF THE PRINCIPAI, GAELIC NATIONAL NAMES PERSONAL NAMES AND SURNAMES ; NATIONAL NAMES Albion, Great Britain in the Greek writers, Gr. "AXfSiov, AX^iotv, Ptolemy's AXovlwv, Lat. Albion (Pliny), G. Alba, g. Albainn, * Scotland, Ir., E. Ir. Alba, Alban, W. Alban : Albion- (Stokes), " " white-land ; Lat. albus, white ; Gr. dA</)os, white leprosy, white (Hes.) ; 0. H. G. albiz, swan.
    [Show full text]
  • Whyte, Alasdair C. (2017) Settlement-Names and Society: Analysis of the Medieval Districts of Forsa and Moloros in the Parish of Torosay, Mull
    Whyte, Alasdair C. (2017) Settlement-names and society: analysis of the medieval districts of Forsa and Moloros in the parish of Torosay, Mull. PhD thesis. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/8224/ Copyright and moral rights for this work are retained by the author A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge This work cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the author The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the author When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given Enlighten:Theses http://theses.gla.ac.uk/ [email protected] Settlement-Names and Society: analysis of the medieval districts of Forsa and Moloros in the parish of Torosay, Mull. Alasdair C. Whyte MA MRes Submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Celtic and Gaelic | Ceiltis is Gàidhlig School of Humanities | Sgoil nan Daonnachdan College of Arts | Colaiste nan Ealain University of Glasgow | Oilthigh Ghlaschu May 2017 © Alasdair C. Whyte 2017 2 ABSTRACT This is a study of settlement and society in the parish of Torosay on the Inner Hebridean island of Mull, through the earliest known settlement-names of two of its medieval districts: Forsa and Moloros.1 The earliest settlement-names, 35 in total, were coined in two languages: Gaelic and Old Norse (hereafter abbreviated to ON) (see Abbreviations, below).
    [Show full text]
  • 2020-June-Thistle
    Tundra Thistle The Newsletter of the Alaskan Scottish Club Volume 26 Number 6 June 2020 Coming Events: Midsummer in Scotland ASC Adopts a Trail! By Rev. Amberle Wright Midsummer is when we see the turning of the year as the By Preston McKee days begin to shorten and the moods of the people turn to Alaskan Scottish Club – Cleaning the Trail one piece of more fun and festive celebrations. Midsummer falls rubbish at a time. between the planting and harvesting of crops, leaving people who worked the land time to relax. The atmosphere The Alaskan Scottish Club has adopted a 2 mile section of of the many different rituals and celebrations held all over the Campbell Creek Trail as part of Anchorage‟s Tail Scotland is relaxed with a mix of anticipation. The festival Clean-Up Program. Our section runs between Victor (Off of Midsummer is primarily a Celtic fire festival traditionally Dimond) and the pavilion at Taku Lake and Stormy Pl. (off celebrated on either the 23rd or 24th of June, although the Dimond). longest day actually falls on the 21st. It‟s easy to take a walk and do some good at the same Some of the earliest mentions of Midsummer celebrations time. Please join us twice a month (or whenever you can) in Scotland date back to the sixteenth century. We can find and help us pick up rubbish from the trail and spend some the evidence of its importance to our ancestors in the large time outside in the fresh air with a friendly, lively group of number of stone circles and other ancient monuments that people.
    [Show full text]
  • Scottish Naming Customs Craig L
    Scottish Naming Customs Craig L. Foster AG® [email protected] Origins of Scottish Surnames Surnames are said to have begun to be used by Scottish nobility at the direction of King Malcolm Ceannmor in about 1061. William L. Kirk, Jr. “Introduction to the Derivation of Scottish Surnames,” Clan Macrae (1992), http://www.clanmacrae.ca/documents/names.htm “In some Highland areas, though, fixed surnames did not become the norm until the 18th century, and in parts of the Northern Isles until the 19th century.” “Surnames,” ScotlandsPeople, https://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/guides/surnames Types of Scottish Surnames Location-Based Surnames Some people were named for localities. For example, the surname “Murray from the lands of Moray, and Ogilvie, which, according to Black, derives from the barony of Ogilvie in the parish of Glamis, Angus. Tenants might in turn assume, or be given, the name of their landlord, despite having no kinship with him.” Sometimes surnames referred to a specific topographical feature of the landscape such as a river, a loch, a hill, etc. Some examples might include: Names that contain 'kirk' (as in Kirkland, or Selkirk) which means 'church' in Gaelic; 'Muir' or names that contain it (means 'moor' in Gaelic); A name which has 'Barr' in it (this means 'hilltop' in Gaelic). “Surnames,” ScotlandsPeople, https://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/guides/surnames Occupational Surnames A significant amount of surnames come from occupations. So a smith became known as Smith or Gow (Gaelic for smith), a tailor became Tailor/Taylor, a baker was Baxter, a weaver was Webster, etc. “Surnames,”ScotlandsPeople, https://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/guides/surnames Descriptive Surnames “Nicknames were 'descriptional' ie.
    [Show full text]
  • Gaelic – What Would Success Look Like?
    Alba 2030: Gaelic – what would success look like? Programme 09:00 Registration, tea and coffee 10:00 Welcome/opening remarks: Rt Hon Ken Macintosh MSP, Presiding Officer and Futures Forum Chair 10:05 Keynote contribution: Professor Wilson McLeod, University of Edinburgh 10:25 The Future for Gaelic: Panel discussion with Wilson McLeod, Mary Ann Kennedy and Tadhg Ó hIfearnáin. 11.10 Coffee break 11.25 Workshops 12.45 Feedback 12.55 Thanks/closing remarks 13:00 Networking lunch 14.00 Event finishes Speaker biographies Professor Wilson McLeod is Professor of Gaelic at the University of Edinburgh. He acts as director of research on Celtic and Scottish Studies, with research interests including language policy and planning issues in Scotland; language legislation and language rights; and the cultural politics of Scottish and Irish Gaelic literature. Wilson is a regular media commentator on the role of the Gaelic language in Scotland. Mary Ann Kennedy is a Scottish musician, writer, composer, broadcaster and music producer. She was born and brought up in Glasgow in a Gaelic- speaking household at the heart of the city’s language activism and development in the 1970s and 80s: her mother Dr Kenna Campbell MBE is a prominent cultural tradition-bearer and educator, and her father Alasdair was the documentary voice in print of the city’s traditional Gaelic and Highland communities. She is co-director of her own creative business, Watercolour Music, in the West Highlands, and has a particular passion for new writing and non-traditional forms of Gaelic-language music. She previously spent several years in BBC News, ultimately running the Gaelic-language news service.
    [Show full text]
  • Hugh Macdiarmid and Sorley Maclean: Modern Makars, Men of Letters
    Hugh MacDiarmid and Sorley MacLean: Modern Makars, Men of Letters by Susan Ruth Wilson B.A., University of Toronto, 1986 M.A., University of Victoria, 1994 A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in the Department of English © Susan Ruth Wilson, 2007 University of Victoria All rights reserved. This dissertation may not be reproduced in whole or in part, by photo-copying or other means, without the permission of the author. ii Supervisory Committee Dr. Iain Higgins_(English)__________________________________________ _ Supervisor Dr. Tom Cleary_(English)____________________________________________ Departmental Member Dr. Eric Miller__(English)__________________________________________ __ Departmental Member Dr. Paul Wood_ (History)________________________________________ ____ Outside Member Dr. Ann Dooley_ (Celtic Studies) __________________________________ External Examiner ABSTRACT This dissertation, Hugh MacDiarmid and Sorley MacLean: Modern Makars, Men of Letters, transcribes and annotates 76 letters (65 hitherto unpublished), between MacDiarmid and MacLean. Four additional letters written by MacDiarmid’s second wife, Valda Grieve, to Sorley MacLean have also been included as they shed further light on the relationship which evolved between the two poets over the course of almost fifty years of friendship. These letters from Valda were archived with the unpublished correspondence from MacDiarmid which the Gaelic poet preserved. The critical introduction to the letters examines the significance of these poets’ literary collaboration in relation to the Scottish Renaissance and the Gaelic Literary Revival in Scotland, both movements following Ezra Pound’s Modernist maxim, “Make it new.” The first chapter, “Forging a Friendship”, situates the development of the men’s relationship in iii terms of each writer’s literary career, MacDiarmid already having achieved fame through his early lyrics and with the 1926 publication of A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle when they first met.
    [Show full text]
  • The Clan Macleod Society of Australia (NSW) Inc
    The Clan MacLeod Society of Australia (NSW) Inc. Newsletter June 2011 Chief: Hugh MacLeod of MacLeod Chief of Lewes: Torquil Donald Macleod of Lewes Chief of Raasay: Roderick John Macleod of Raasay President: Peter Macleod, 19 Viewpoint Drive, Toukley 2263. Phone (02) 4397 3161 Email: [email protected] Secretary: Mrs Wendy Macleod, 19 Viewpoint Drive, Toukley 2263. Phone (02) 4397 3161 Treasurer: Mr Rod McLeod, 62 Menzies Rd, Eastwood 2122. Ph (02) 9869 2659 email: [email protected] Annual Subscription $28 ($10 for each additional person in Important Dates the one home receiving one Clan Magazine & Newsletter, Sat 2 July Aberdeen Highland Gathering see last Newsletter. i.e. One person $28, Two people $38, Three people $48, Sat. 27 Aug. Toukley Gathering of the Clans - see inside. etc.). Subscriptions are due on 30th June each year. Sat. 3rd Sept. - Luncheon and AGM - see below. Dear Clansfolk, Banner bearers for the Kirkin’ It’s AGM and Membership renewal time. AGM details are below and a Membership Renewal enclosed. At the risk of being repetitious, in order to pass the Constitutional changes we need a good turnout at the AGM this year. Peter AGM Saturday 3rd Sept. Venue is Forestville RSL Club, Melwood Ave, Forestville. We will reserve tables in the Bistro for lunch from 12 noon. You can attend the lunch or the meeting, or both. Bistro prices are reasonable and Charles Cooke & Peter Macleod afternoon timing means no night travelling. We would like to know approximate numbers, so if you are coming could Glen Innes Celtic Festival 29th Apr to 1st May you please phone one of the office bearers at the head of Again our Clan was well represented at this popular and well this page.
    [Show full text]
  • Lachlan Campbell's Letters to Edward Lhwyd, 1704–7
    1 Published in Scottish Gaelic Studies 29 (2013), 244–81 (discussion, 244–52; letters, 253–67; references, 267–9; notes, 270–81). In this file footnotes are used rather than embedded notes and endnotes. Original page-numbers in square brackets. LACHLAN CAMPBELL’S LETTERS TO EDWARD LHWYD, 1704–7 Compiling the first Irish–English dictionary, Edward Lhwyd (1659/60– 1709) was conscious that he needed advice from people who could read and write Irish as well as speak the language. He made inquiries in both Ireland and Scotland, and he tells us that he submitted the dictionary in unbound sheets to three such readers in Ireland and three in Scotland. Of those one in each country responded with comments.1 His adviser in Ireland was the learned antiquary Roderick O’Flaherty (1629–1716), of Park, in Cois Fhairrge, and Lhwyd’s papers include a dozen folio sheets, forty-eight printed pages of the dictionary, marked up with comments by O’Flaherty.2 In Scotland the person who responded with advice on Scottish Gaelic was Lachlan Campbell, a young Presbyterian minister from Campbeltown, whose five surviving letters to Lhwyd are printed here. Campbell had studied in Glasgow, where he was acquainted with Lhwyd’s friend Robert Wodrow (1679–1734), named in the first letter. From the age of twenty-one * The whole of Edward Lhwyd’s surviving correspondence has been included, for the most part with images of the original letters, in the database Early Modern Letters Online hosted by the Bodleian Library (emlo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk), which holds some 1700 in-letters from his papers, left in the Ashmolean Museum at his death, some of which had been removed but were recovered from two sources by a later keeper of the museum.
    [Show full text]
  • Introduction a Celtic Dirk at Scotland’S Back? the Lordship of the Isles in Mainstream Scottish Historiography Since 1828
    Introduction A Celtic Dirk at Scotland’s Back? The Lordship of the Isles in Mainstream Scottish Historiography since 1828 Richard D. Oram This volume of essays has its origin in a chance conversation in 1993 in which it emerged that no event had been organised to mark the five hundredth anni- versary of the forfeiture of the Lordship of the Isles by King James IV of Scotland. The result was a small academic conference the following year based at Ballygrant on Islay, close to the former symbolic centre of the Lordship at Finlaggan, and plans to bring the papers from that conference together as a published collection. That plan never matured and the conference papers which represented the contribution of different disciplines to the study of the MacDonald Lordship mainly found homes in academic journals or were incor- porated into larger research publications. Individually, none came close to offering the chronological depth or disciplinary breadth that the multi-author collection had promised and, while in the last two decades there has been a renaissance of research into the Late Medieval period in the Western Highlands and Islands of Scotland – focussed especially on the Church – a comprehen- sive modern overview of the MacDonald lordship in the fourteenth and fif- teenth centuries has remained a conspicuous absentee on the publications horizon. The essays in this volume, amongst which are two substantially revised and developed papers from that original 1994 conference, are not claimed to con- stitute such a comprehensive overview; they focus on key themes that illus- trate the culture(s) and identity/ identities of the territories encompassed by the MacDonald Lordship at its peak, from portable personal artefacts to ships, buildings and the visual signifiers of heraldry; episodes critical in the develop- ment, downfall and disintegration of the MacDonalds’ imperium; and institu- tions that gave form and substance to MacDonald power.
    [Show full text]
  • The Prophecies of the Brahan Seer (Coinneach Odhar Fiosaiche)
    GIFT OF I ft i THE PROPHECIES BRAHAN SEER (COINNEACH ODHAR FIOSAICHE). BY ALEXANDER MACKENZIE, F.S.A. Scot, EDITOR OF THE "CELTIC MAGAZINE"; AUTHOR OF " THE HISTORY OF THE MACKENZIES," " THE HISTORY OF THE MACDONALDS AND LORDS OF THE ISLES," ETC., ETC. ^hirb ®bittx>ii—JEtirk (Enlargeb. WITH AN APPENDIX ON THE SUPERSTITION OF THE HIGHLANDERS, BY THE REV. ALEXANDER MACGREGOR, M.A. INVERNESS: A. & W. MACKENZIE, "Celtic Magazine" Office, 1882. ^\ yf'.^ A. KING AND COMPANY, PRINTERS TO THE UNIVERSITY OF ABERDEEN. <> DEDICATION TO FIRST EDITION. TO MY REVERED FRIEND, THE REV. ALEXANDER MACGREGOR, M.A., Of the West Church, Inverness, as a humble tribute of my admiration of his many virtues, his genial nature, and his manly Celtic spirit. He has kept alive the smouldering embers of our Celtic Literature for half a century by his contributions, under the signature of " Sgiathanach," " Alas- tair Ruadh," and others, to the Teachdaire Gatdhealach, Cuairtear nan Gleann, Fear Tathaich tian Beann, An Gaidheal, The Highlander ; and, latterly, his varied and interesting articles in the Celtic Magazine have done much to secure to that Periodical its present, and rapidly increasing, popularity. He has now the pleasing satisfaction, in his ripe and mellow old age, of seeing the embers, which he so long and so carefully fostered, shining forth in the full blaze of a general admiration of the long despised and ignored Literature of his countrymen ; and to him no small share of the honour is due. That he may yet live many years in the enjoyment of health and honour, is the sincere desire of many a High- lander, and of none more so, than of his sincere friend, ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
    [Show full text]